Android app developer is looking for answers, take a minute and help

Android application developers work hard and don't get nearly enough appreciation. As you see mentioned just about everywhere, it's the application support that makes or breaks a mobile platform, so their job is pretty important. Luckily, we're in good shape with Android, a look at the huge number of apps in just the official Android Market will confirm. But there's more than sheer numbers. We all want applications and games that offer just the right features, at the right level of performance, and at the right price. Here's a chance for you to help.

Android application developer go6game has a short survey in the Android Central forums, and he'd like a little feedback. The questions are simple enough to answer, but I can see how the data he collects from this would help create games and apps that are not only more popular (Android app developers deserve to make a good living people), but work better and offer the features we want. The questions he's asking are easy enough, consisting of things like how you discover and recommend apps to others. Downloading apps from the Market is something every one of us does daily. I think it's a great idea, and I know plenty of us will take the time to help out.

Apps don't write themselves, and quality apps certainly take a lot of thought and hard work to bring to market. When an application developer takes the time to ask us just what we're looking for, the least we can do is tell him. Hit the link below and do your part -- better apps and games will be the result, and who doesn't want that?

Ice Cream Sandwich for international Motorola RAZR leaks

Calm down, Verizon Droid RAZR owners, this one's not for you, unfortunately. Owners of the international (GSM/HSPA) Motorola RAZR XT910, however, are in luck, as an early build of Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich appears to have leaked out for Moto's flagship international phone.

The leaked build, which has surfaced over on fansite DroidRZR.com, shows firmware built just a week ago on Jan. 17, which exhibits characteristics of both Blur and stock ICS. For example, Motorola's icons are used for the dialer and people app, but other apps, like the launcher, are untouched by the manufacturer's UI layer. Naturally, since this is pre-release firmware, there's no guarantee things will stay this way when ICS eventually rolls out officially, and we'd expect the finished article to look a little more like Blur and less like stock Android.

Whatever Ice Cream Sandwich on the RAZR ends up looking like, this early leak is a tantalizing chance for RAZR owners to get an early look at the latest version of Android on their handsets. And jealous Droid RAZR owners, we're sure it won't be long before this leaked ROM is hacked apart and ported across to the Verizon version. If you're feeling adventurous, you can find download links and installation instructions over at the source link.

AT&T Galaxy Note rumored to launch Feb. 18, along with two unannounced devices

Looks like AT&T is wasting no time bringing its version of the Samsung Galaxy Note to market. If the latest rumors from BGR are to be believed, the carrier plans to launch Samsung's 5.3-inch phone/tablet hybrid on Feb. 18 for $299.99 on-contract.

The blog also reports that two new, unannounced devices will be making their debut the very same day -- the Samsung Rugby Smart and the AT&T Fusion. The Rugby Smart is reportedly a $99 entry-level HSPA+ phone, while the AT&T Fusion, for which no specs are offered, will apparently sell for $124.99.

All unconfirmed at this stage, of course, but we don't think anyone would be surprised to see the AT&T Galaxy Note arriving in mid-to-late February with a hefty price tag. As for the other two devices, we'll just have to wait and see what materializes over the next month.

For more on the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note, take a look over our hands-on coverage from CES, and our full review of the international version.

Samsung Galaxy S III rumor-mill going strong, will we see it at MWC?

The Samsung Galaxy S III (or lack of it) has the Internet ablaze once again, and this time it's based on some information industry insider Eldar Murtazin claims to know, and has hinted at in his Twitter account. According to Eldar (and nestled in with words like "flagship" and "so much better"), the next-generation Galaxy S device will feature updated hardware with a 1.5GHz or 1.6GHz quad-core processor, a 12MP camera, HD screen (we're assuming it will be part of the AMOLED family), Ice Cream Sandwich with Samsung's TouchWiz tweaks, and it gets great battery life -- yes, he says he has used it.

Eldar says we'll get a to see the Galaxy S III in February at Mobile World Congress, which would make sense. (The Galaxy S II was announced in Barcelona last year.) We'll see manufacturers' new products at a show designed for manufacturers to show us their new products. The Galaxy S III will most likely be released in the Far East and Europe before the United States, so Barcelona would be the place to see it. The specifications sound about right for the next generation of hardware, so Eldar's news seems feasable, and a natural progression that we've seen before. We'll know more soon when we head to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress.

What does concern us is once again seeing new and better handsets from Samsung, while their current models sit and wait for updates. The original Galaxy S line is (and we hate it as much as you do) a write-off by now, but there's more than a few Galaxy S II devices which are more than capable, waiting for an Ice Cream Sandwich update. Samsung's gorgeus screens and state-of-the art hardware has made many of us give them a second chance with the Galaxy S II, but another year-long saga of waiting for device updates just isn't going to fly. Hopefully, the right people at Samsung and the carriers realizes this as well.

Sprint Epic 4G Touch EL29 update rolling out now

Sprint today is rolling out the EL29 update for the Epic 4G Touch (aka the Samsung Galaxy S II). This is the update we first told you about a week ago when the source code dropped. And today, the update has begun to push out to devices. Here's the official changelog:

Security update

Dismissing multiple calendar alerts

Commercial Alert System (CMAS) activated

The Epic 4G Touch update -- officially to software version S:D710.0.5S.EL29, if you're into that sort of thing -- will be released in stages, Sprint says, with all devices scheduled to receive it within the next 10 days or so.

We're also expecting the Carrier IQ software to have been stripped from this update, and that may be included in the "Security update" bullet point. (But why not just come out and say it?) Sprint previously announced that it has quit using Carrier IQ for analytics data after a couple of months of user outrage, and we've already seen Sprint remove the softare from its HTC ROMs.

To get the update for your Epic 4G Touch, just look for the notification in the aptly named notification bar, then send things on their way. Or if you've told it to install later, head to menu>settings>about phone>system updates>update Android to get things going.

Usually we have to wait for some brave individual to take screwdrivers, spudgers and the like to a device before we get to see what's lurking inside. This time, however, Samsung's saved you the trouble of voiding your warranty and being left with a heap of broken circuitry, with an official teardown of the Galaxy Note, its unique phone/tablet hybrid.

If you've never looked inside one of these things before, it's always amazing how so much "stuff" is packed within a (relatively) small device. In the case of the Galaxy Note, the S-Pen stylus integration requires a special digitizer to detect the pen's presence and the amount of pressure, as well as a WACOM chip to process pen input.

Hit the source link for a more detailed breakdown of what's inside the Galaxy Note, or check out our full review for more on the device itself.

LG boasts 1 million Optimus LTE phones sold worldwide

LG says it's sold more than one million Optimus LTE smartphones worldwide since the device's launch late last year. The Optimus LTE made its international debut in LG's native South Korea last October, before moving to Japan and North America in December. On AT&T it's the Nitro HD, on Verizon it's the Spectrum, and Canadians will recognize it as the Bell Optimus Eye. The names may be different, but all these devices are built around similar hardware -- a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 720p IPS display and that all-important 4G LTE radio.

Cherry-picking some impressive sales figures, LG says that Korean sales of the Optimus LTE hit 600,000 units in the first three months of availability, while Japanese buyers snapped up 8,500 units on launch day alone. There are no U.S.-specific numbers included in today's announcement, but that shouldn't surprise anyone given that the Spectrum has just launched on Verizon, and the Nitro has been available for a little over a month. Unsurprisingly, the Optimus LTE has yet to land Europe on account of the lack of widespread LTE coverage on European networks.

Sony ST25i 'Kumquat' looks set to launch as 'Xperia U'

We got our first glimpse of the Sony ST25i "Kumquat" last week, and now it seems we may have the official name for the device, too. According to a new entry on the website of the Indonesian telecoms authority, the phone will launch as the Sony Xperia U. This continuing the lettered naming scheme used by the Xperia S, as well as last year's Tablet S and Tablet P.

The ST25i "Xperia U" is rumored to sport a 3.5-inch qHD (960x540) screen, a 1GHz dual-core CPU and 5MP camera, making for an attractive mid-range proposition. An unofficial, leaked roadmap lists the Xperia U around the €260 price point.

As Sony expands its 2012 line-up, we're looking forward to seeing more of the Xperia U, hopefully starting with an official introduction at Mobile World Congress next month.

Update: O2 says that as of 1400 GMT today it has fixed, the problem, and that "technical changes" as part of "routine maintenance" were to blame for the issue, which affected customers from Jan. 10 until today. The network's full statement is available on its official blog.

Original story: If you're browsing the web on your phone or tablet on O2 UK, then the network could be exposing your phone number to every website you visit. O2 customer Lewis Peckover recently discovered that when you're browsing over 3G on O2, your handset's phone number is often included in the HTTP headers sent to each website you visit, in plain text.

HTTP headers are information exchanged between your browser and the web server before a page is loaded. In theory, the way O2 includes your phone number -- alongside more mundane information like your IP address, browser and OS -- means that any website you visit could easily find out your number. It's worth pointing out that the header used by O2 to send phone numbers -- "x-up-calling-line-id" -- isn't one that's routinely logged by web servers. However, just a couple of lines of code would allow a malicious server to find your phone number just by having you visit a website over 3G.

Lewis Peckover has set up a site to allow O2 customers to see whether they're affected. We've tried this with an O2 SIM in our Galaxy Nexus, and sure enough, there our phone number was in the list of "headers received". If you're on O2, make sure you've got Wifi disabled on your device, then click here and see if you spot your phone number among the HTTP headers. For what it's worth, early reports indicate that not all O2 customers are affected, though a large proportion apparently are.

This isn't an Android-specific problem, however due to the fact that it's a network-level issue, it'll affect Android phones just the same as any other device that's browsing over O2's data network. For this reason, just about anything that connects via HTTP over O2's network could potentially access this information. For its part, O2 says it's "investigating" the issue, and while this is a big deal for O2 customers, the fact that this is a network-level problem should mean that a fix will be relatively quick and easy to deploy.

Google is streamlining privacy policies, changes effective Mar. 1

Google has announced that it is in the process of streamlining its privacy policy, combining more than 60 current documents for various products into one easy to read version, with less of the "legal gloop" and complicated language. Starting March 1, users will no longer have a different privacy statement for the various Google offerings. This makes sense to us, especially if the promises of a document that's easy to read and understand hold true. It likely makes sense for regulators as well, as Google has been under the microscope about it's practices and privacy concerns.

Google's also saying this will lead to a simpler and more immersive user experience, where information from the suite of Google services can be combined to provide more relevant information while using Google branded products. In the video above, they give the example of how it can improve search results. Of course, it will also help target the right advertisements to each of us at the same time.

Google also wants to make it clear that they are not changing the basic elements of their privacy policies. They still won't sell your personal information, and they don't share it without your express permission "except in very limited circumstances like a valid court order." On the other hand, data about you can now be used across all services where it wasn't (couldn't?) before. This isn't neccessarily "evil," but it opens things up for a bit deeper discussion and review. In the end, Google is still going to be Google, and it sounds like the company's really only trying to simplify things for end users like us -- and at the same time making it easier for its own products to use what access you've already granted them.

Verizon has announced their new 4x4 Galaxy Nexus contest and you'll want to make sure you get in on the action if you haven't already. The contest will be running for the next four days and in order to win, you'll have to meet Verizons expectations for entry. The short version:

Every day for the next 4 days, an entry timeframe will be announced that runs from 10AM ET through 11:59PM ET.

Each day you'll be given a different task for your Tweets. All of which must include, #GalaxyNexus4x4.

You can have up to 10 entries, provided you complete the tasks.

Winners will be chosen on by January 31 and contacted via Twitter DM. Your odds of winning will depend on the amount of entries of course but if you don't play -- you won't win that's for sure. You can hit the source link for the full contest details and rules.

Verizon confirms Droid RAZR MAXX launch date and price

$299.99 on-contract, coming this Thursday, Jan. 26

The word out of CES was that the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX would be hitting store shelves on Jan. 26 for $299.99, and today we have the official confirmation of this from Verizon. As usual, that $299.99 price tag comes with a two-year service agreement, and puts the RAZR MAXX in line with Verizon's Galaxy Nexus, as well as the 32GB original RAZR.

Check out our hands-on coverage from CES for more on the Droid RAZR MAXX, which packs a massive 3300 mAh battery. And be sure to let us know in the comments if you'll be picking one of these up on Thursday.

MIT and Google open-source App Inventor code, public release of MIT's version on track for April

You guys probably know this by now, but I was a fan of App Inventor. Watching my wife use it to create her own application just sucked me in, and I loved the whole idea of a way for anyone to make an Android app. When we heard that Google was shutting it down, I was sad, but the news that MIT was going to pick up the pieces and run with it lifted my spirits again. Recent news makes me even happier -- MIT and Google have released the full source-code for the service, and folks at MIT's Center for Mobile Learning have said that the public release of the re-vamped service is on track for an April release:

So far (knock on wood) our development effort is on track for releasing the MIT Public App Inventor Service in the first quarter of this year. While unexpected issues can always arise, we're guardedly optimistic that people who plan to run App Inventor courses or workshops can anticipate being able to use the MIT service by mid-April.

With the release of the source and the JAR files you have the choice of running your own local copy, or jumping in and using MIT's version once it goes live. See the links below for more information, and remember us if you give it a try and come up with your own app -- we'd love to check it out!

Sony unveils new CMOS sensors for smartphones

Sony's Exmor R image sensors have been a stand-out feature for many of the past year's Sony Ericsson phone cameras. Moving forward, the electronics giant looks set to introduce even more impressive capabilities in future devices, with today's announcement of new image sensors for smartphones.

Today Sony took the wraps off new CMOS image sensors for smartphones with white pixels in addition to the usual red, green and blue detectors. The new tech is designed to improve low-light performance, something which Sony, as well as rivals like HTC, have been focusing on in their high-end smartphones over the past year. Sony also says that this new "RGBW coding" allows them to introduce HDR video capabilities in its smartphone cameras, meaning more detail is captured in very light and very dark areas in the same shot.

Samples of the new sensors are due to ship from March, meaning it'll probably be later in the year before we'll see them in products you can actually buy. Sony's new Xperia S and Xperia Ion, which are due in March and Q2 respectively, feature earlier model Exmor R sensors at 12MP.

Dolphin Browser releases Skitch and Evernote add-ons

The folks at Dolphin Browser, one of the most popular third party browsers for Android devices, have unveiled two new add-ons today -- Skitch and Evernote. Both integrate seamlessly with the Dolphin Browser app, and look to be simple and elegant. We love simple, especially when paired with elegant. Using them is easy enough -- when you come across a page you'd like to share you just tap the icon in the Dolphin Browser sidebar (Skitch is a big pink heart, and Evernote is the elephant profile we all know and love) to send it to the correct app. You can either grab the screen and annotate before you share it with Skitch, or clip a block of text to send to Evernote. If you don't have the app itself installed, Dolphin will direct you to download it and get signed up.

The developers at Dolphin promise us a whole slew of great add-ons in 2012, and they're off to a great start with these two. When something looks and runs well, and is useful, we're all for it. Keep up the good work fellows! We've got links to the Market for both add-ons below, check 'em out.

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